If we love what is good, we should love God’s holiness, for his holiness is goodness to perfection. Holy means good. The holy God brings wholly good.
When we say that God is holy, we are saying that only he is good.
Jesus said, “No one is good except God alone” (Luke 18:19).
The connection between God’s goodness and holiness is illustrated by one story about the ark of the covenant. The ark of the covenant was the chest that God commanded Moses to make on Mount Sinai, in which he was to put the two tablets inscribed with the Ten Commandments. This was the ark that God commanded Moses to place in the Holy of Holies. It was the only furniture in the holiest place of the Tabernacle. On its cover were two carved statues of cherubim. They symbolized the cherubim that surround God’s presence on heaven’s throne. So, God’s special, manifest presence rested above the ark.
Therefore, it was the holiest article in the holy tabernacle. During Israel’s 40 years of desert wanderings, when they would dismantle and later set up the Tabernacle again, most of the workers were to take care not to touch or even look at the ark, so holy was it (Numbers 4:4–20).
What the ark reveals about the goodness of God’s holiness
At one point King David tried to bring the ark to Jerusalem, but the leaders mishandled the operation, breaking some of God’s clear rules and leading to a tragic death (I’ll write about how this relates to God’s goodness soon). Second Samuel 6:9–12 says:
“David was afraid of the LORD that day, and he said, ‘How can the ark of the LORD come to me?’ So David was not willing to take the ark of the LORD into the city of David. But David took it aside to the house of Obed-edom the Gittite. And the ark of the LORD remained in the house of Obed-edom the Gittite three months, and the LORD blessed Obed-edom and all his household.
“And it was told King David, ‘The LORD has blessed the household of Obed-edom and all that belongs to him, because of the ark of God.’ So David went and brought up the ark of God from the house of Obed-edom to the city of David with rejoicing.”
The holy brought the good
God’s holy presence brought blessing when the people treated him with proper reverence and protocol. Because of the presence of the super-holy ark, God blessed the man Obed-edom, blessed every person in his household, and blessed all that belonged to him, all his possessions.
That means they experienced a sudden, unmistakable wave of health and abundance when the super-holy ark came to their house (such as Deuteronomy 28:1–14 describes). Sick children suddenly got well. The crops suddenly grew better. The vines grew better, bigger grapes. Pests disappeared from the fields. The perfect amount of rain fell softly on the fields. More sheep and cattle conceived, and the animals delivered healthy young.
This was because the holiest article in Israel’s religion—the ark—was perfectly good. God’s holiness brought blessing and life to his people.
Our ways and God’s ways
Our ways: Fallen people think they are good. But they question whether God is always good, in particular as they try to reconcile human suffering and the presence of evil in the world with God’s goodness. And they are especially dubious about God’s holiness being good and attractive.
God’s ways: God is holy. That means God alone is good, and he is infinitely, perfectly good in all his ways.
I have more to say about the goodness of God’s holiness and crucial Scriptures to see both in the Old and New Testaments. So, let’s resume this topic next week.